Something bright and new

It's been an interesting couple'a weeks at Casa Pizarro, largely due to me and my hoarde of pets.  I've finally been able to start moving 'em over, and taking the dogs out on a leash is a chore for someone on a walker (like me).  But it's worth it to have 'em in bed with us; Mama and Sonic have become fast friends.  In other news, IT'S HOT OUTSIDE!!!  The high yesterday was bad enuff at 92, with a heat index of 103, and it's gonna get worse!  I'm quickly becoming as small a fan of summer as I am of winter, though both have their pitfalls.  In summertime the heat makes one's clothes sticky, and for some weird reason everyone gets extra cranky.  In the winter the cold hurts physically, especially if you're older (like Mama) or if you've got joint issues (like me).  I prefer the happy mediums, spring and fall, but then they're both loaded with thunderstorms, so I'm impossible to please.

So I've wiled away the quiet hours buying things I shouldn't, mainly clothes for my dolls that are harder to clothe.  The dolls themselves are not new, to me or to the blog.  Here's Cinnamon...

...and Aimee...

...and Simona.

Finding clothes for Cinnamon is not terribly hard since Ideal produced outfits for her.  Hasbro also produced outfits for Aimee, but pickins are slim on eBay.  As for Simona...well, I'm glad she can share clothes with Crissy.  

Enter Crissy's Clothing Closet.  The shop sells handmade clothes for vintage dolls, many of whom are a challenge to clothe like Harmony and Alta Moda.  Some of 'em, like Crissy and her bunch, are less of a challenge, but what the heck, the clothes are really cute anyway.  Cinnamon is rocking this cute purple overalls set, complete with a scarf for her hair.

Indeed, all three of these getups came with headscarfs, which I think were kinda popular in the sixties.  Aimee here looks like a go-go girl, and a lot more casual than she normally would be in her stock clothes.

Lastly, Simona.  She traded her heavy winter jacket for a rainbow mini.  Alas, I have no shoes for her yet.

Not bad, eh?  The prints are appropriate for the period these dolls "lived" in, and they're eye-catching.  So that's the big girls!  I also got a few things for two of my Barbie girls, namely Midge and Francie.

I hate looking a gift horse in the mouth, but I don't think that orange jumpsuit flatters Midge's coloring.  Francie looks fine, but I want something a bit more appropriate for summer.  Something like this, maybe?

The new ensemble doesn't match Francie's lovely hair, but I love how yellow looks on her.  Unfortunately her cute square-toed shoes don't stay on her left foot, so I just pose her holding it like so.

I've never bought a Francie dress before, even though I have a reproduction doll in storage, and a Francie body with a Hair Fair head, so this cute dress is a milestone for me.

As for Midge, here's how she looks in her bright new dress.

Hmmm...this looks more suitable for fall with those colors, but fall will come soon enuff so it's all good. 

Getting my dogs up-to-date on their shots cost three hundred bucks and some change, so these will be the last things I buy for awhile.  But I have to say, I'm quite pleased with what I've got.  Aimee's dress is my favorite of the bunch, because she looks...well, she looks nice, but she looks more casual.  Aimee's stock clothes were all formals, all dresses, no slacks or pantsuits or casual dresses, and now she's got that.  Having something new for Simona is nice too, because Alta Moda clothes are kinda expensive.  Now if I could only find her some shoes!  If any of y'all have experience with Alta Moda dolls, please let me know what kind of shoes they can wear so Simona doesn't have to spend another winter barefoot.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987

Love is blue

At the beginning of the year an Etsy ad declared that the color of the year was going to be lime green.  I love lime green and all green in general, but my heart was pulled in a different direction.  Whovians and Moody Blues fans are kinda obligated to at least tolerate the color blue, and...well, I actually happen to love blue, and I loved blue before I knew John Lodge from John Pertwee.  So when I saw a series of deep blue Barbie dresses on Etsy I was all over those like ugly on an ape.  Interestingly, this first one is not handmade like I initially thought, but rather a Best Buy outfit, #2217 from 1978.  It's also not a dress, LOL.

I love Best Buy outfits!  Some of them are dated by today's sensibilities (pantsuits, though I happen to love pantsuits), but they're also colorful and relatively easy to find, and they cover Barbie's naked butt, dated or not.  I don't have a big collection of Best Buy clothes yet (#2217, #1359 and four copies of #1354), but when I want something that will fit the old twist 'n' turn body, Best Buy is usually what I look for.  Unfortunately, like a great many Barbie outfits of today, most Best Buy getups didn't come with shoes.

Mama told me that barefoot dancing was the best kind of dancing, and Midge apparently agrees.  Anyway, one of the things that I like about Best Buy clothes is that they can have variants.  I've counted at least four of #1354 (including one sized for Skipper) and three of #1359, and it appears that #2217 has three variants as well.  Mine is light blue on a dark blue field, but there is also white on the same dark blue field, and a different shade of blue with polka dots and roses.  The top elastic is unfortunately pretty loose, and Midge has thus had her fair share of Tara Reid moments.

Oops!  I'll have to see what I can do about that.  Shouldn't be too hard to fix.  Despite the fact that Midge's eyes are green, and her earrings are light blue and yellow, I like this getup on her.  I think the blue looks nice with her red hair.

Next outfit...shucks, I wish I'd had a redhead for this one too, since it was modelled by a redhead on Etsy, but Theta's blue lips match.  Etsy shop is Mall4Doll.

This fits Theta like it was specially tailored for her, and the fabric is both stretchy and drapey so it will fit quite a few of my dolls.  It needs a necklace though, something to make Theta sparkle.  Oh, and for the record, nip slips are not out of the question for this dress either, so I have to be careful about how I pose Theta.

These next two dresses are for curvy dolls, and they came from PrymaDonnaDolls.  This shop is based in Sri Lanka and has a long shipping time, so if you buy something from here, be prepared to wait.  So here's Chardonnay in a simple tube dress with detached sleeves.

I love a good tube dress for Barbie, because they're easy to put on and they can be worn by all the body types.  Usually.  This dress was specifically tailored for Curvy dolls so it would probably be too big for a petite doll.  At the same time it's pretty tight on Chardonnay, tight enuff that I can't pose her legs apart and help her stand better.  I love this shade of blue, though!

Andra's new threads aren't really a dress, but a jumpsuit like Midge's.

It looks good, but the seams are uneven in places.  This isn't such a big deal, but the fit is pretty tight in the chest, almost so that I couldn't pull the whole thing up.  I dread taking this off Andra.  She rocks it, though.  Andra rocks just about everything she wears.

One of the benefits of being a modern doll collector is the originality of the clothes.  Granted, at the beginning of Barbie's reign a crafty child or a crafty mama could whip up something that couldn't be bought in stores, but one couldn't find fabric sprinkled with avocados or with the Butterfinger logo.  Spoilers, I've got those too, LOL.  Tacky?  Maybe, but then I happen to like tacky, and my dolls give no effs whether they look tacky or not, because they're...well, they're dolls!  That said, Lovable Louise is...well, not as tacky.

I love finding new duds for old dollies!  Clothes for Lovable Louise are about as easy to find as hen's teeth, but BonDebproductions did have this dress, and by luck of the draw it's blue.  Next step is to find some shoes (I've already found a source that will provide undergarments) and unfog her eyes.  I owe a debt of gratitude to Beth in WV (and probably a few other folks) who told me that a warm hair dryer and an index card will do the trick.  Louise and Sunflower will be my guinea pigs, and I'll let y'all know the results.

For those of y'all that might fancy the more traditional look, here's Ashley and Lena, two of my Magic Nursery kids.  They wear hearts, and Lena ties the whole post together with touches of blue.  Worked out pretty well, actually!

Happy Valentine's Day,

RagingMoon1987 

Ms. P's dolls

This is sort of an epilogue to my Barbie doll haul in December.  Ms. P promised to show me her childhood dolls, and yesterday she came in with them!  She told me about bubble-cut Barbie, Midge, an Ken, but she had some other stuff too.  First out of the box was the bubble-cut.

All of these dolls have been played with and thus have some paint missing, but Mama's Barbie is missing paint too so that's no biggie.  Bubble-Cut was Ms. P's first doll (Ms. P was seven), and she's wearing a dress that an aunt made.  When I told Ms. P that she was my favorite of the dolls she told me she'd put that in her will, LOL.

Crew-cut Ken was there, the kind that loses his hair as time goes by.

I don't often get to see vintage Ken dolls, so seeing this young hunk was a real treat.  He's got a lovely face.

Then there was Ms. P's "first Midge," clad in a dress that I think her mother made.  I love the colors!

I was particularly excited to see Fashion Queen Midge, as I've never seen one of them IRL before.

For the uninitiated, Fashion Queen Barbie and Midge had short molded hairstyles that could accommodate three wigs that they were packaged with.  The wigs came in all three hair colors and in flip, pageboy, and bubble-cut styles, though these wigs have been...well, played with!  They do still have all their hair though.

Of course Midge has lost none of her girl-next-door cuteness.

There was a Twist 'n' Turn Barbie in the mix, clad in a lovely blue ballgown.

TNT's hair is in rough shape, but she's got a beautiful face.  I've always loved these late sixties dolls.

Rounding out the bunch were a blonde Skipper and a brunette Skooter.  I can't tell if that Skipper is a Malibu doll or not, but they're both cute.

Ms. P also saved a couple of old paper products, one Barbie-sized magazine and one booklet that had Barbie and co. inside.

Tutti, Casey, and Francie are listed on that booklet, giving y'all an idea about how old that thing is.  I didn't photograph the inside, but there was an advertisement for Francie's Afro-American variant in there, and the illustrations were bordered in Piet Mondrian-esque colored blocks.  It was all unabashedly sixties and I loved it.  I really loved seeing all of these dolls too; despite being rough around the edges they could be easily restored if Ms. P so wished, but she likes 'em as is because they've got so many memories attached.  She admitted to me that she played with the dolls well into junior high, which I got because the heyday of my Barbie days were in high school.  Hey, it was better than the dumb, sometimes dangerous things that some of my classmates did!  Anyway, I ended my bull session with Ms. P by showing her pictures of my vintage things, and she sounded very impressed.  Sadly, neither of us have Francie, despite us both liking her!  I may have to change that...

Warm hugs,
RagingMoon1987

My Bavatarbie

The Bootheel's weather woes continue, though I'm happy to report that there's no uncertainty like there was last Sunday. Last week we weren't sure whether it would be cold rain, FREEZING rain, ot sleet, but tonight and tomorrow we get snow, period. Last Friday the forecast was calling for one to two inches, and then by Monday it was up to two to four inches. I'd rather have snow than ice, but driving in snow still sucks.  Fortunately for us the worst of it is going south of us, but it could be bad for some of y'all.

Now to today's topic.  Years ago (I'm talking "I was in college" years ago, so the timeframe between 2006 and 2011), I was a fan of a blog called A Feminist's Guide to Barbie.  I hold a dim view of most modern-day feminists due to their obsession with their genitals and with sex in general, but this lady was...well, she actually had her head on straight.  She acted like she genuinely wanted to make the world better for women, and without all the man-bashing (she was married to a hunk, LOL).  She had a cute little girl, they played Barbie together, and the mom had a term for the doll one used to represent oneself.  This was your "Bavatarbie," a portmanteau of "avatar" and "Barbie."  This Bavatarbie could look like you, or it could...well, NOT look like you.  For example, I'm heavyset with shaggy brown hair, pale blue eyes, and a steadily worsening limp, but my Bavatarbie would likely be a redhead and able-bodied (any eye color goes).  Kinda like...

...California Midge (very subtle difference from California Dream Midge).  Red-haired, green-eyed, freckle-faced, and semi-standing on her own two feet.  Here's what the box looked like, because I'm like that.

As I've said before I've always preferred Midge to Barbie, because Midge was less perfect and more personal, but she was capable of being just as glamorous as Barbie was if she wanted to be.  Now for the record, I do own a rebodied California Dream Midge and I love her, but I wanted one of these dolls intact.  And I got her!  I got her MIB with her full outfit, her skates, her paper inserts, and pale spots on her legs.  Indeed, Midge's spots have developed into full-tilt patches.  Her legs are also very sticky, and a rubdown with a wet wipe didn't help much.

Here's a better look at the patches.

Bopsy can relate.  I don't know what it is about Barbie dolls from the late eighties, but a lot of 'em develop these round faded marks on their legs.  Bopsy dates from 1987 and thus has the spots.

A few years made a world of difference.  Snap 'n' Play (1991) and Teen Talk (1992) do not have these fade marks...nor do any of my nineties dolls.

The spots are an aesthetic problem, but as far as I know it's nothing more than that.  Spots notwithstanding, Midge is structurally sound and has everything that a good California Midge should.  She's got her skates, which I think are adorable.

I never learned how to skate, by the way.  Pain and I never have been friends, and the thought of sandpapering skin off my hands and knees turned me off of skating...and scootering...AND riding a bike.  My sister learned to ride both a scooter and a bicycle, so I figure she'd have been good at skating.  Anyway, here's a closeup of Midge's face; the first three Midge dolls of the eighties had my beloved Steffie head.  

California, California Dream, and Cool Times.  After that Midge took on the Diva head, and I think I own the first doll with that head, All-Star Midge.  Indeed, I think the Diva head favors the old-fashioned Midge head more than Steffie does.

I own Cool Times Midge, but guess where she is.  In storage!  Cool Times has pink lips that don't go very well with her tan, while California and California Dream Midge both have raspberry lips that I love.  Take special note of these eyes, as they're the best way to tell California Midge from California Dream Midge.  My doll is the California variant and has two round white dots...

...while California Dream has a dot and a line.  Told y'all the difference was subtle!  I think there were some minor differences in the enclosed skates too, but that's all the difference there is.  Hair's the same, coloration is the same, earrings are the same.  Let's take a moment to admire the paint on these dolls...all of 'em, not just Midge.  I love their coloration. 

Shucks, I wish I had Dee Dee with me!  I love her fiery eyeshadow, but then I also love Teen Talk Barbie's paint, because her eyes are green rather than the usual blue sported by Barbie dolls.  Before the Fashionista days blonde Barbie dolls were almost always blue-eyed, so it always pleases me to find one of these older dolls with brown or green eyes.  But when it comes to heads, for me Steffie is at the head of the pack as always, and I'm glad to have another one aboard. 

After unboxing Midge I left her sitting on the arm of the couch, and she looked so cute that I turned her head and snapped a picture.

When I was just beginning to blog about dolls I'd sit typing up the words, and I'd usually have a doll sitting or standing nearby.  More often than not they'd look cute sitting or standing close to me, and I'd snap a picture.  I wish I had some of those now, but they're locked up in my old computer...which hasn't been used in ten years.  I can start the habit up again, but I still wish I had some of those old images, those that had a lot of extraneous junk in the background, or were kinda weird, or were just...well, candids of my Barbie dolls.  Maybe they'd be a little scruffy or not looking directly at the camera, but I was pleased anyway.  

Now, as usual, I'm gonna keep an eye out for ice halos and batten down the hatches for snow!  So far I haven't seen any halos, but I did see some beautiful hoarfrost on the windows and mirrors of our car (plus my reflection, LOL).  I love hoarfrost; it inspired my favorite Faberge egg.

We got put under a winter storm warning yesterday afternoon, but thank God, the weather folks aren't predicting any ice for us.  Snow is a pain in the posterior to drive in, but it's tolerable.

Love,
RagingMoon1987